The spoils of victory

The man at the middle of all the Senate drama -- Pedro Espada -- is beginning to enjoy some of the fruits of his less-than-ethical summer adventure.

Democrat Espada -- who first enabled the coup by accepting a Republican offer of a leadership position in return for his vote, then defected back to the Democrats after getting a similar offer -- is spreading out. Now that he is installed as Senate majority leader, Senate staffers are clearing out two offices adjoining his suite in the state Capitol for him to use, the Albany Times Union reported. The extra space will be used for conferences and staff.

One of the occupants of the new offices will be Steve Pigeon, who helped billionaire Tom Golisano engineer the coup. Espada has hired Pigeon at $140,000 to be his new general counsel.